Font size
WorksheetsSemester1 Study Guide
Total questions: 85
Worksheet time: 7hrs 31mins
The hindsight bias refers to people's tendency to
dismiss the value of replication.
reject any ideas that cannot be scientifically tested.
exaggerate their ability to have foreseen the outcome of past events.
assume that correlation proves causation.
Dr. Donelian wants to reduce his students' perception that psychological experiments merely document the obvious. His best strategy would be to ask the students to
predict the outcomes of experiments before they are told the actual results.
explain the outcomes of experiments after they are told the actual results.
describe how experimental hypotheses were derived from basic psychological principles.
survey students living on campus
Replication involves
the selection of random samples.
perceiving order in random events.
rejecting ideas that cannot be scientifically tested.
repeating an earlier research study.
Replication involves
the selection of random samples.
perceiving order in random events.
rejecting ideas that cannot be scientifically tested.
repeating an earlier research study.
What is the primary limitation of the case study research method?
The case study is not part of the scientific method.
Random sampling must be used to ensure representative findings.
Individual cases can be misleading and result in false generalizations.
Correlational findings from case studies cannot be interpreted as causal.
A correlation coefficient is a measure of the
statistical significance of a difference between two sample means.
direction and strength of the relationship between two variables.
average squared deviation of scores from a sample mean.
difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution.
A researcher interested in proving a causal relationship between two variables should choose which research method?
correlation
survey
naturalistic observation
experiment
The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution is the
mean.
range.
median.
standard deviation.
The enduring traditions, attitudes, and behaviors shared by a large group of people constitutes their
culture.
normal curve.
wording effects.
statistical significance.
Which philosopher is most well known for theorizing that the mind at birth is tabula rasa or a “blank slate”?
John Locke
Plato
Immanuel Kant
René Descartes
The first psychological laboratory was established by
William James.
John Watson.
Wilhelm Wundt.
Sigmund Freud.
To accurately infer cause and effect, experimenters should use
random assignment.
naturalistic observation.
standard deviations.
correlation coefficients.
Which perspective most clearly focuses on how we learn observable responses?
evolutionary
biological
behavioral
psychodynamic
Contemporary psychology is best defined as the scientific study of
conscious and unconscious mental activity.
observable responses to the environment.
behavior and mental processes.
thoughts, feelings, and perceptions.
In an experiment designed to study the effectiveness of a new drug, research participants who receive a placebo are participating in the ________ condition.
dependent variable
experimental
control
replication
Efforts to discover whether the intelligence of children is more heavily influenced by their biology or by their home environments are most directly relevant to the debate regarding
structuralism versus functionalism.
evolution versus natural selection.
observation versus introspection.
nature versus nurture.
What technique do researchers use to reduce the impact of confounding variables?
hindsight bias
naturalistic observation
scatterplots
random assignment
Who highlighted the reproductive advantages of environmentally adaptive traits?
Plato
Aristotle
Charles Darwin
John Locke
The cognitive perspective in psychology focuses on how
people encode, process, store, and retrieve information.
feelings are influenced by blood chemistry.
people try to understand their own unconscious motives.
behavior is influenced by environmental conditions.
Professor Crisman believes that most women prefer tall and physically strong partners because this preference enhanced the survival of our ancestors' genes. This viewpoint best illustrates the ________ perspective.
social-cultural
evolutionary
cognitive
behavioral
Mrs. Alfieri believes that her husband's angry outbursts against her result from his unconscious hatred of his own mother. Mrs. Alfieri is looking at her husband's behavior from a(n) ________ perspective.
evolutionary
behavioral
psychodynamic
biological
Dr. Robinson conducts basic research on the relationship between brain chemistry and intellectual functioning. Which psychological specialty does Dr. Robinson's research best represent?
clinical psychology
biological psychology
social psychology
developmental psychology
Both the researchers and the participants in a memory study are ignorant about which participants have actually received a potentially memory-enhancing drug and which have received a placebo. This investigation involves the use of
naturalistic observation.
the hindsight bias.
random sampling.
the double-blind procedure.
Which of the following is true for those assigned to a control group?
The experimenter exerts the greatest influence on participants' behavior.
The research participants are exposed to all the different experimental treatments.
The research participants are exposed to the most favorable levels of experimental treatment.
The experimental treatment is absent.
Which of the following statements is most correct about the relationship between correlation and causation?
Correlations are statistical relationships, causations are logical relationships.
Correlation indicates the possibility of a causal relationship, but it does not prove causation.
If one variable is strongly positively correlated with another variable, the relationship is causal.
if one variable is strongly negatively correlated with another variable, the relationship is not causal.
Both correlations and causations need to be proven with experimental data.
Hormones are chemical messengers of the
action potential
autonomic nervous system
central nervous system
endocrine system
The chemical messengers released into the spatial junctions between neurons are called
hormones
neurotransmitters
synapses
sensory nuerons
While you are hiking in the mountains, a rattlesnake slithers across your trail. Which of the following triggers the "fight-or-flight" response, increasing your heart rate and blood pressure, as you run away?
somatic nervous system
sympathetic nervous system
motor cortex
limbic system
Your life would be most immediately threatened if you suffered destruction of the
amygdala
hippocampus
corpus callosum
medulla
The master gland of the endocrine system is the
thyroid gland
pituitary gland
pancreas
hypothalamus
Which neural center in the limbic system plays a central role in emotions such as aggression and fear?
amygdala
thalamus
cerebellum
medulla
Which lobes of the brain receive the input that enables you to feel someone scratching your back?
parietal
temporal
occipital
frontal
The somatic nervous system is a component of the ________ nervous system.
peripheral
autonomic
central
sympathetic
An area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements is called
hypothalamus
motor cortex
reticular formation
angular gyrus
The capacity of one brain area to take over the functions of another damaged brain area is known as brain
tomography
phrenology
aphasia
plasticity
Our lips are more sensitive than our knees to sensations of touch due to which of the following?
More neurotransmitters are released when the lips are touched
A larger area of the sensory cortex is associated with our lips
The medulla routes impulses from the lips directly to our brainstem
Our lips are directly connected to the sensory cortex, but our knees our not
Which of the following structures in the brainstem helps coordinate movements and lies above the medulla?
hippocampus
cerebellum
thalamus
hypothalamus
The minimum level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse is called the
reflex
threshold
synapse
action potential
A brief electrical charge that travels down the axon of a neuron is called the
synapse
agonist
action potential
myelin sheath
Evolutionary psychology studies the evolution of behavior and the mind using principles of
psychotherapy
self-regulation
natural selection
interaction
An all-or-none response pattern is characteristic of the
initiation of neural impulses
release of endorphins into the central nervous system
release of hormones into the bloodstream
excitation of the antagonistic hormonal system
For you to be able to run, _______ must relay messages from your central nervous system to your leg muscles.
interneurons
agonists
motor neurons
sensory neurons
Epinephrine and norepinephrine are released by the
thyroid gland
pituitary gland
parathyroids
adrenal glands
Which region of your brainstem plays a role in arousing you to a taste of alertness when someone nearby mentions your name?
reticular formation
cerebellum
hypothalamus
amygdala
The function of dendrites is to
receive incoming signals from other neurons
release neurotransmitters into the spatial junctions between neurons
coordinate the activation of the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems
control pain through the release of opiate-like chemicals into the brain
The brain structure that provides a major link between the nervous system and the endocrine system is the
cerebellum
amygdala
hypothalamus
medulla
The biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes are called
genes
genomes
heredity
neurotransmitters
The knee-jerk reflex is controlled by interneurons in the
action potential
spinal cord
resting potential
neurotransmitters
Circadian rhythm refers to
the pattern of emotional ups and downs we routinely experience.
a pattern of biological functioning that occurs on a roughly 24-hour cycle.
the experience of sleep apnea following an extensive transoceanic flight.
the cycle of five distinct stages that we experience during a normal night's sleep.
a pattern of brain waves that occur during sleep.
The ability to comprehend the meaning of speech is called
the representativeness heuristic.
productive language.
receptive language.
intuition.
framing.
To recognize the active information processing that occurs in short-term memory, researchers have characterized it as ________ memory.
iconic
working
flashbulb
implicit
repressed
By dividing broad concepts into increasingly smaller and detailed sub-groupings, we create
algorithms.
category hierarchies.
functional fixedness.
overconfidence.
prototypes.
Memory is best defined as
the conscious encoding of information.
stored knowledge that has been semantically encoded.
the persistence of learning through the storage and retrieval of information.
recalling and retrieving information stored in the cerebral cortex.
the retrieval of stored information in precisely the same form in which it was encoded.
Which of the following is true of melatonin?
It is produced by the brain during the hypnagogic stage in NREM sleep.
Production of melatonin during sleep boosts our immune system.
It is a sleep hormone released by the pineal gland into the bloodstream.
It alters metabolic and hormonal functioning in ways that mimic aging.
It helps restore and repair brain tissue by increasing the production of free radicals.
"The magical number seven, plus or minus two" refers to the storage capacity of ________ memory.
short-term
explicit
flashbulb
implicit
sensory
During the course of a day, people may unconsciously encode the sequence of the day's events. This best illustrates
the spacing effect.
automatic processing.
rosy retrospection.
echoic memory.
short-term memory.
Chomsky suggested that diverse human languages share a
universal grammar.
functional fixedness.
outcome simulation.
category hierarchy.
confirmation bias.
To combine words into grammatically sensible sentences, we need to apply proper rules of
semantics.
syntax
nomenclature.
phonics.
phonemes.
Consciousness is
the ability to solve problems, reason, and remember.
the sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem.
the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information.
effortless encoding of incidental information into memory.
our awareness of ourselves and our environment.
Which of the following is most accurate about a typical night's sleep?
The sleep cycle repeats itself every 60 minutes.
During REM sleep the muscles are tense and brain waves reveal deep relaxation.
As sleep progresses, Stage 3 and Stage 4 sleep diminish while REM sleep increases.
Most of a nights sleep is spent in Stage 4 and REM.
Everyone needs 8 hours of sleep per night.
Generating multiple possible answers to a problem illustrates
the representativeness heuristic.
the availability heuristic.
belief perseverance.
divergent thinking.
functional fixedness.
Layla has difficulty going to sleep and staying asleep. Layla is most likely suffering from
sleep apnea.
night terrors.
hypnagogic sleep.
insomnia
paradoxical sleep.
The process of retrieval refers to
the persistence of learning over time.
the organization of information into manageable units.
getting information out of memory storage.
conscious repetition of information to be remembered.
the identification of information previously learned.
Advocates of the social influence theory of hypnosis are likely to argue that
hypnosis is a unique state of consciousness.
hypnotized people are simply enacting the role of good hypnotic subjects.
the process of dissociation best explains hypnotic phenomena
most hypnotize people are consciously faking hypnosis.
hypnotic susceptibility is positively correlated with introversion.
Using barely recognizable syllables to communicate meaning best illustrates a 12-month-old's developing capacity for
syntax.
telegraphic speech.
productive language.
the representativeness heuristic.
babbling.
A prototype is a
mental grouping of similar objects, events, or people.
step-by-step procedure for solving problems.
best example of a particular category.
simple thinking strategy for solving problems efficiently.
new, novel item fitting in an existing mental category.
The increase in synaptic firing potential that contributes to memory formation is known as
chunking.
the serial position effect.
automatic processing.
long-term potentiation
proactive interference.
Logical, methodical step-by-step procedures for solving problems are called
heuristics.
semantics.
prototypes.
algorithms.
fixations.
The earliest stage of speech development is called the ______ stage.
babbling
telegraphic speech
one-word
grammatical
semantic
Your consciously activated but limited-capacity memory is called __________ memory.
short-term
implicit
mood-congruent
explicit
automatic
The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system is called ________ memory.
sensory
state-dependent
long-term
flashbulb
implicit
Experts would most likely agree that intelligence is
an inborn ability to perform well on standard intelligence tests.
a mental ability to learn from experience.
a general trait that underlies success on nearly any task.
a multiple array of completely independent adaptive traits.
the unconscious processing that occurs as the first step in problem solving
To regard an abstract concept as if it were a real, concrete thing is called
inductive reasoning.
heritability.
factor analysis.
reification.
standardization.
The Stanford-Binet, WAIS, and WISC tests are all types of
personality tests.
factor analysis tests.
achievement tests.
multiple intelligence tests.
general intelligence tests.
To assess whether intelligence is a single trait or a collection of several distinct abilities, psychologists have made extensive use of
the normal curve.
criterion-based validation.
standardization.
reliability assessment.
factor analysis.
Emotional intelligence is a critical component of
creativity.
social intelligence.
analytical intelligence.
convergent thinking
factor analysis.
High intelligence scores have been linked with high concentrations of gray matter in certain regions of the frontal lobe. The gray matter refers to the ________ of neurons.
cell bodies
axons
dendrites
synaptic junctions
receptor sites
The speed with which people retrieve information from memory has been found to be a predictor of their ________ intelligence.
verbal
practical
emotional
spatial
creative
Binet and Simon designed a test of intellectual abilities in order to
provide a quantitative estimate of inherited intellectual potential.
distinguish between academic and practical intelligence.
identify children likely to have difficulty learning in regular school classes.
assess general capacity for goal-directed adaptive behavior.
distinguish between people with high general intelligence factor (g) and savant syndrome.
Five-year-old Benjy has an IQ of 120 on the original version of the Stanford-Binet.
4
6
8
9
12
The eugenics movement would have been most likely to encourage
selective breeding of highly intelligent people.
creation of special education programs for intellectually inferior children.
construction of culturally and racially unbiased tests of intelligence.
use of factor analysis for identification of various types of intelligence.
identification of lower IQ students in order to target more specific tutoring hel
The widespread improvement in intelligence test performance during the past century is called
the normal curve.
stereotype threat.
the g factor.
standardization.
the Flynn effect.
A test is reliable if it
measures what it claims to measure or predicts what it is supposed to predict.
yields dependably consistent scores.
has been standardized on a representative sample of all those who are likely to take the test.
samples the behavior that is being assessed.
produces a normal distribution of scores.
A test has a high degree of validity if it
measures or predicts what it is supposed to measure or predict.
yields consistent results every time it is used.
produces a normal distribution of scores.
has been standardized on a representative sample of all those who are likely to take the test.
assesses aptitude and achievement accurately
The similarity between the intelligence test scores of identical twins raised apart is
less than that between children and their biological parents.
equal to that between identical twins reared together.
equal to that between fraternal twins reared together.
greater than that between ordinary siblings reared together.
equal to that between adopted siblings reared together.
